Re post 34. Good idea. Too bad the Brits didn’t think of it. You are thinking like its the 21st century. They are thinking like its the 19th.
The SAS troops didn’t fail. Their political/military leaders did. The SAS can kick ass with the best of them, but if their hands are tied by the politicians and their own acquiescent brass, then they don’t have options. I expect that they were told that they must surrender if confronted militarily, which is a position in which no soldier should be placed. How this trip was authorized without even the most basic intelligence from MI-6 as to possible contracts and identity of reliable go-betweens, is unfathomable.